Guys, there are a lot of things we old timers dismiss offhand because we learned about it long ago when the game, in general, was far less friendly to newbies.

However there are a lot of missing "checks" when things are done wrong that, if they were added, would save everyone a huge headache.

My example, just to get you thinking along the same line, is the "invoke" command.

As it stands, this is typically done with a keyword/phrase. However, if the wrong one is used or nothing is used at all, there is no message. As far as I know there is just a blank line return.

There needs to be something there. For items without an invokable ability, something like "You sense nothing from X as you attempt to draw forth its power." For items with an invokable ability, but where the wrong keyword/phrase is used, something like, "Your skin tingles momentarily as energy flickers and fades within X."

"Use" also could use some kind of work here. Something to let you know that even if you are trying to do something incorrectly, you are at least on the right track. I don't think complete and utter vagueness helps anyone.

If anyone can think of quirky things like this, such as missing or misleading failure/success echoes, and the like, please post under this (briefly, leaving the ranting to me).

>There needs to be something there. For items without an
>invokable ability, something like "You sense nothing from X as
>you attempt to draw forth its power." For items with an
>invokable ability, but where the wrong keyword/phrase is used,
>something like, "Your skin tingles momentarily as energy
>flickers and fades within X."

I don't really see this as possible, unless you want to see that echo for every piece of gear you have when you invoke something unsuccessfully, and every piece of gear you have minus one when you invoke something successfully.

>"Use" also could use some kind of work here. Something to let
>you know that even if you are trying to do something
>incorrectly, you are at least on the right track. I don't
>think complete and utter vagueness helps anyone.

Most of the items that can be used that I've seen do this.

>>"Use" also could use some kind of work here. Something to
>let
>>you know that even if you are trying to do something
>>incorrectly, you are at least on the right track. I don't
>>think complete and utter vagueness helps anyone.
>
>Most of the items that can be used that I've seen do this.

Sadly, I think the majority of the items I've ever found out you could "use", were from the sheer fact that they did absolutely nothing I could tell, but were limited for some random-ass reason, and I was trying to figure out why the heck they would possibly be limited.